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Tuesday, December 09, 2014

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors in 2014

This week's topic is about new-to-me authors that I discovered in 2014. I love this topic and I love discovering new authors. I aim to discover many more in 2015!

In no particular order...

Robin York

This year, I read Robin York's two new adult books Deeper and Harder. I thought they were both really good and I was really surprised by the depth to them as well as how emotional I felt when reading them. After reading terrible NA book after another, reading these two books gave me hope that the new adult genre can be different.

Cammie McGovern

I absolutely loved Amy and Matthew. I was really surprised by it. I loved both the main characters and how much we came to know about them and watch them both grow individually as well as in a couple. I'd love to see more books like this - to see more characters with OCD or with long-term illnesses and conditions like cerebral palsy.

Clare Furniss

The Year of the Rat is one of my favourite books that I've read this year. And it's down to the wonderful, emotional story that Clare Furniss has written. Grief and anger and family and friendship and love of all types. It was really great read, Year of the Rat, and I'm looking forward to reading more by the same author.

Non Pratt

I didn't really discover Non this year. I've known her for awhile and she's a fab person and friend. But this year I finally read her written work and her debut book, Trouble, was absolutely amazing. I'm ridiculously excited for her second book, Remix.

Sarah Crossan

I think Sarah Crossan is my favourite discovery of 2014. On a whim, I had bought her verse novel, The Weight of Water on my Kindle and this year I finally read it. I loved it so much that I recommended that my book club read it who then all read it and enjoyed it too. I was very much looking forward to reading Apple and Rain this year, which while it wasn't in verse as well it did contain elements of how powerful and important poetry is. I loved them both and will certainly be reading Sarah Crossan's previous books in the near future!

Louisa Reid

I read Lies Like Love by Louisa Reid this year and I feel like it was the most powerful book I read all year. It really packed an emotional punch for me and I ended up feeling so many strong emotions when I read it. I loved the complicated family relationships and the element of mental illness and also the romantic aspects of the book. It was definitely hard to read in places and might not be everyone's cup of tea but it was certainly mine. And I can't wait to read more by Louisa Reid!

Emma Carroll

I'm not a huge reader of historical fiction but every time I say that I think I end up reading more and more historical fiction that I absolutely fall in love with and rave about. And that was definitely the case for The Girl Who Walked On Air, this historical middle grade adventure novel about a young girl who is a Victorian tight rope walker. It was exciting, it was emotional and I absolutely fell in love with everything about this book. I definitely want to read more books just like this!

Holly Black

During the summer holidays, I read The Coldest Girl in Coldtown and I fell in love. Not only with Holly Black's writing and this interesting story line, but I was also hugely impressed with the amount of diversity that was included. It really, really made me excited to read more by her. Starting with her newest, The Darkest Part of the Forest I think...

Brigid Kemmerer

Another surprise for me this year was reading and loving the first book in the Elementals series by Brigid Kemmerer. I'd heard good things about the series but I really didn't think the series would be something I would enjoy. Little did I know! The first book was utterly addictive and I couldn't help but fall in love with all of the brothers at the same time. I can't wait to read more in this series and get to know all of them.

Leigh Bardugo

2014 was the year I finally read the first book in the Grisha trilogy! I've downloaded the second book onto my Kindle and I have a feeling that as soon as I finish the second book I'll want to dive straight into the third. I loved the world-building in Shadow and Bone, I loved the characters and the relationships and I can see myself very easily falling into this world completely.

11 comments:

Fantastic list, Michelle! I've really been wanting to read Holly Black's books as I've been hearing amazing things about her books. I have the first book in the Elementals series on my Kindle and I should really try getting to it soon! Shadow & Bone is sitting on my TBR pile waiting to be read, so I'll definitely be getting to that soon! Amy and Matthew is sitting next to my bed and it looks like such a good story, so I'm hoping to read that soon as well. So many books, so little time!

I haven't read any of the authors you've mentioned in your post this week, so will have to check them out. Here's my TTT for the week: http://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2014/12/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-new-to-me.html

I own both of Holly's books that you mentioned (The Coldest Girl and Darkest Part Of The Forest), but I've yet to read them. I loved Holly's Curseworkers series, as well as The Iron Trial and a few of the books in the Spiderwick Chronicles. She's an awesome author and a hilarious person (I met her once!) I need to get to those two sooooooon.-Jon from Bookish Antics!